Survivors are too often criminalized and ostracized for speaking out against rape and abuse. Kam is facing 18 months in jail for exposing a serial rapist who has been terrorizing Union County, NJ for years.
Meanwhile the real criminal is walking free. Read more about their story, and show up to court to demand Union County drops these bullshit charges!
“I exposed my serial rapist and because of it I have been facing felony charges for a year. Micheal Domiguez of Linden, New Jersey has been targeting and abusing people in the Central Jersey area since he was a teenager. He is calculated and violent, and over 20 people have come forward with horror stories about him. When I first exposed him he would not stop calling to threaten violence against me, beg for me to take down the post, and even apologized for raping me in hopes I would give in. After finding out that I was a sex worker he confronted and harassed me about it.
He is known to push for sex and will not take “no” for an answer. When someone chose to walk home in the rain rather than sit in a car with him pushing for sex, he continued to chase down and harass them to get back into the car. He has been terrorizing people for years and has been exposed many times before I came forward.”
“I went through several court dates without proper legal advice before I was finally assigned a public defender. The prosecution has spent the past year pushing a plea deal on me, in which I would still be charged and be put on probation. Besides having to go to court almost every month, I have not been able to find a job because of these pending charges. I’ve gotten hired, only to be told that after running background checks they couldn’t hire me because it went against their policy.”
In this country. One in five women suffer completed or attempted rape during their lifetime. and about half (51.1%) reported being raped by an intimate partner and 40.8% by an acquaintance. Nearly two in five LGBTQ+ young people (39%) reported that they had ever been forced to do “sexual things” that they did not want to do.
When survivors fight back against their rapists, whether by defending themselves in the moment, or by exposing them later, they’re often hit with charges that the person who raped them will never face. Outside the legal arena, survivors who speak out face social isolation, another form of punishment for confronting rape culture, which teaches everyone growing up in this society to make excuses for rape and abuse, and to look for reasons to dismiss survivors.
END SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST OPPRESSED PEOPLE
END THE CRIMINALIZATION OF SURVIVORS
In 2006, then 16-year old Cyntoia Brown was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a man that bought her for sex. Brown was a homeless runaway teen that had been in and out of the juvenile justice system, survived multiple rapes and assaults and was forced into sex slavery by the pimp and captor who regularly sold her for drug money.
The Tennessee court system repeatedly described her as a “teen prostitute” and tried her as an adult completely justifying child sex-trafficking and decidedly criminalized Brown for escaping a horrifying predicament against one of the many pedophiles that raped her.
The cruelty against Cyntoia Brown garnered public outrage against child sex-trafficking and the US juvenile criminal system but, that didn’t change her sentencing; she was finally released 15 years later as 31-year old adult after fighting a legal battle for years and garnering mass support. This case highlighted the reality for proletariat youth specifically rape survivors where the system we live under is more than willing to criminalize a child to uphold patriarchy in society, a necessary function of capitalism.
AMBER HEARD
In 2019, Johnny Depp filed a defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard, seeking $50 million because of her 2018 op-ed headlined “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change” in which Depp is not named. During the same year, Depp also sued the executive editor of the British tabloid, The Sun for libel after it referred to him as a “wife beater” in an article. This resulted in a 2020 trial in London where the newspaper won the case by, calling on Heard to detail 14 instances of Depp abusing her.
Even though this piece of shit abuser was legally declared a wife beater, the 2022 famous Heard v. Depp trial proceeded and portrayed the deeply misogynistic society we live in through popular public opinion largely claiming Depp was also a victim. Mainstream outlets sided with Depp consistently, attacked Heard incessantly, and the Virginia courts awarded Depp $15 million dollars to be paid by his victim Amber Heard.
The trial revealed horrifying evidence against Depp, no doubt proving he is a rapist and an abuser but, he faced zero consequences meanwhile, Heard was declared a liar, a gold digger, shunned, and regularly received death threats. Even though, Amber Heard is a wealthy bourgeoisie celebrity she is still at the mercy of patriarchy which will social isolate and attack woman in order to up hold and justify the abuse of of wealthy powerful men. No amount of power or wealth will eradicate misogyny and sexual violence from happening to woman, only the complete overthrow of capitalism to fundamentally change the society will live under.
24 year Jaia Cruz was wrongfully convicted for murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison after fatally stabbed Ray Hodges, in order to defend herself. While news outlets characterize her as violent and dangerous, the reality is that trans woman like Jaia Cruz are the most likely to be killed in our society. Trans woman are constantly facing verbal and physical attacks and there are almost never any consequences for the perpetrators, even when they commit murder. Historically men have used the “trans panic” defense to murder trans woman but, when woman like Jaia Cruz defend themselves from attacks they are unjustly locked away.
After Jaia’s arrest, videos from 2021 resurfaced online of Jaia being violently beat by multiple men in broad daylight and no one stepping into to help her or defend her. This is the constant reality for trans woman. Rapists, abusers, and murders are welcomed to violate woman in our society, especially trans woman. When victims finally decide to stand up and dended themselves they are criminalized. The real criminals face consequences for their attacks, they should fear the wrath of the people but instead they feel justified.
It takes tremendous courage for survivors to come forward and expose their rapists, and it’s the responsibility of anyone with a conscience to stand with them against the backward legal system and our patriarchal society. Sexual violence will never stop until rapists begin to face punishment for their crimes, whether through the legal system (clearly unlikely) or through their victims speaking out and holding them accountable outside legal channels.
Dare to Struggle 